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RIP Ovation USA


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http://www.courant.com/business/hc-ovation-new-hartford-kaman-fender-20140423,0,7165296.story

 

Note to self.... don't sell your company to Fender ;)

 

Even more sad for me on a more personal note as I involuntarily participated in one of these downsizings and am forever part of this ever growing family of Fender orphans. I know some of these Ovation guys, it's important to remember is that there are real people behind each of these brands. Real people with spouses, kids and familis and house payments and kids in school, etc.

 

 

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Just another example of moving production overseas. You know the very sad thing is they charge a huge tariff on guitars we try to sell over there. In China they love US guitars but they have if I remember correctly a 150 dollar tariff. I call BS on our trade laws with China.

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My Ovation Magnum II bass was one of the best 4-stringers I've ever had... still have seller's remorse on that one. Over the years that Magnum bass and it's funky pickups and really effective mute helped me ape Paul on many a Beatles tune... across their catalog. Heavy though. Only my Gibson Victory II bass that was made entirely of hard rock maple was heavier.

 

My first guitar was also an Ovation... a 12-String Balladeer. I thought my parents were stupid for getting me that, but it turned into a blessing. I learned chords pretty fast, made friends in bands that wanted to be the noodling lead guitarists and let me play rhythm behind them, and this was also 1985 or so and we were all finding LedZep for the first time and a bunch of 15-years-olds pulling off a 10 minute Nineteen Forty-Eightish/Gallow's Pole/Magic Bus medley dropped jaws at the HS battle-o-the-bands. (We didn't win btw... a bunch of music store owners' brats playing For Whom the Bell Tolls using the entire inventories of two local music stores as backline got the trophy... and the gift certificates to their own stores... stupid, and they're both out of business now, too.. haha.)

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Sounds like he did well

 

Probably chump change to him. http://www.kaman.com/aerospace/aerosystems/air-vehicles-mro/

 

Kaman Helios needed a sound shell to stop motor/rotor noise from entering the chopper. They came up with a reflective parabolic shell that rejected sound quite well. He then reasoned that if you wanted a guitar to project forward, just make the back of the guitar like the hello shell…and Ovation was born. I imagine it was more of a distraction than anything else, at least at the time.

 

When Glenn Campbell started playing them, I bought one. I still have it. 1967 model (2nd year) with a lifetime warranty. They dropped that warranty shortly thereafter upon realizing that even though the shell made it sound great, it also caused expansion/contraction problems. Since the back was rigid and the top was not, after a few years, the top would develop cracks. Eventually they worked out the problem for the most part by changing the internal bracing, but the originals all have it. I sent it to the factory to have it repaired the first time. It lasted another 20 years, and then did it again. Currently it has a crack from the bridge to the back end, but still sounds great. The other thing about the first few years is that the neck is incredible. It is VERY slim, feels like an electric guitar when you play it. I have never found another acoustic that plays as well as it does. However, the cracks made me decide to retire it. It went with me through everything my generation did. I played 60's coffee houses, VietNam war protest rallies, sit ins, stages with oil projections over the band, and a thousand or more shows with it. I can't part with it. I bought another Ovation for around $1500 about 15 years ago but it pales by comparison, not that it isn't a good guitar, but nothing like the original one. Maybe someday I can get it fixed and it will last the rest of my life anyway. It is part of me, and helped make me who I am, so cracks or not, it will never leave home. It sadly but proudly sits between my newer Ovation and my Parker acoustics.

 

OVATION - RIP. I am very sad about this…..

 

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I've been thinking about this all day too, while TD'ing a Nitty Gritty Dirt Band show... the band started about the time Ovation started. Great band, great music, and, ummm, great guitars.

 

And their harmonies, simply a work of art. Did they do the fiddle solos?

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I've been thinking about this all day too, while TD'ing a Nitty Gritty Dirt Band show... the band started about the time Ovation started. Great band, great music, and, ummm, great guitars.

 

 

Too bad. I sometimes play a Legend 12-string... sort of my own evolution from the various 12-strings I started with back in the '60s.

 

We saw the NGDB a few years ago here at the Ram's Head, a decent local venue... what a hoot! They had the whole place rockin' (so to speak)!

 

-D44

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